This invention is directed toward an apparatus and method for constructing signage.
Signs are used to convey information and are in wide spread use to provide warning, information, traffic control, advertisement, etc. Signs used indoors can be subjected to wear, vandalism, etc. Signs used outdoors are subjected to the destructive forces of ultraviolet light, corrosives, wind and thermal variation. The environment in which the sign will be used dictates the required construction technique.
Current sign construction techniques include printing directly on a semi-rigid substrate of plastic. Signs are also printed directly on a rigid substrate of wood, aluminum or steel. Printing directly onto a rigid (or semi-rigid) substrate limits the quality of graphics on the resultant sign, and it is typically more difficult and costly to print directly onto a rigid substrate than to print to a flexible substrate (such as vinyl).
To avoid these problems, many current sign construction techniques alternatively include printing on a flexible substrate label and applying this label directly to rigid substrate such as walls, posts, wood, aluminum, steel, or semi-rigid substrate of plastic, etc. Affixing is commonly done with a pressure sensitive adhesive layer applied to the reverse side of the flexible label. While this two step process of printing to a flexible substrate label and applying this label to a rigid substrate is less costly than the direct printing method, this two step process results in signs that are less durable.
Additionally, prior art standard injection molding configurations and procedures, shown in FIG. 5, have a single station injection molding machine 10 injecting plastic through a stationary platen 12 and into the “A” half of the mold through a sprue bushing 14. All cores needed to create holes in the sign, and all molded features needed for mounting and orientation would be incorporated into the “B” side of the mold. Upon mold opening, the finished part would normally stick to and travel with B side. Necessarily, to remove the finished part from the B side, an ejector system 16 is incorporated under the B side of the mold. In this configuration, and to make signs, the label would have to be placed on the A side of the mold prior to injecting plastic resulting in the requirement to have a hole in the center of the label to allow the molten plastic to pass through to the mold cavity, or alternately, incorporate a runner system that routes plastic around to one or more sides of the cavity. Alternatively, the label would be placed on the B side of the mold requiring removal of the part by a robot prior to placing the label. This requires two trips by the robot for each sign produced increasing production time. Further, in this configuration, and to make signs, the label could be placed on the B side of the mold but would require that the robot remove the finished part, deposit it on a conveyor, pick up the next label in sequence and place it in the B side. This arrangement requires that the robot make two trips into the mold at each opening thereby doubling the time required to manufacture signs.
In view of these problems, it is an object of this disclosure to provide signage for viewing by persons in a traffic area having a planar substrate of molded material fused to a label.
A further object of this disclosure is to provide a sign having a planar substrate of molded material fused to a label, the planar substrate including a mounting feature adapted to secure the sign to a second object.
Another object of this disclosure is to provide a method of sign manufacturing having an injection device and ejector system associated with a first sign mold portion and a label placed in a second sign mold portion.
A still further object of this disclosure is to provide a guidance system incorporated into the mold and label hopper to accurately and repetitively position labels in the mold.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.